Louisville football: Loss of Blanton Creque leaves huge hole on special teams

Louisville football received horrible news on what should have been a celebratory Monday when they announced kicker Blanton Creque would miss the remainder of the season. How will the Cards fill the void left behind?

As the Louisville football program heads into the bye week with their confidence at an all-time high, they’ll do so without arguably their most important, and consistent player.

For a program who is already short on bodies, losing anyone to injury is a blow to the gut, but losing one of the greatest kickers in school history will likely have a significant effect on the final stretch of the season.

After an incredible start to the 2019 season which included going 8 of 11 on field goals, including the game-winning kick against Boston College that earned him the nickname “Cold Blooded Creque” by teammates as well as going 33/33 on extra points, Louisville senior kicker Blanton Creque’s season came to an end on Saturday.

On a rather unnecessary re-kick that ended with Creque attempting to make a tackle, the redshirt senior’s went down and did not return. Fans were worried about Blanton’s status before the game had even ended, seeing that he was visibly upset on the sidelines after the injury occurred.

We now know that-that injury was indeed serious enough to end Creque’s season and likely his career as Louisville announced today that the injury that knocked him out was, in fact, a torn ACL.

With a major blow to the special teams unit going into a much-needed bye week, how will the Cards handle this latest setback?

Although Louisville does have a backup for Creque in redshirt sophomore Ryan Chalifoux, the Cards will most likely not be able to rely as heavily on the special teams/field goal unit as they have so far this season.

Creque’s injury could also add more pressure for the offense the convert on fourth downs while in field goal range, instead of traditionally relying on Blanton to net Louisville three points.

The bright side, if there is such a thing when discussing injuries – The Cards are just one win away from making a bowl game in Satterfield’s first year, with four remaining games to make it happen.

With almost two full weeks for the Cards to prepare for the Hurricanes, I’m hopeful that Louisville special teams Coach, Stu Holt, will have Chalifoux ready enough to at least be serviceable for in-game situations.

Creque’s season-ending injury is a major blow, but if there’s one thing we know about this year’s Louisville squad, it’s that this team will continue to fight and scrap for wins regardless of any adversity they come across.